I also think it would be very useful to have a way to append text to metadata. If for example you have a caption 'Country, City - date: subject..." I would like to be able to add (Photographer/Agency) with a preset.
Not sure if Metadata presets add keywords or if they overwrite...

Ian,
Well done!
What do you mean by
1. We need an easy way to combine/merge keywords – yes it is possible at the moment but it is convoluted.
For:
8.Keyword sets should not be limited to 9 keywords each. It makes no sense. Allowing those sets to be of variable length would make a huge improvement to the speed in which we can keyword.
I use Metadata presets

Photoshop:
Just noticed that Photoshop 2018 was installed on my computer... I have the Adobe "photo whatever subscription"... BUT strangely, the previous version (Photoshop CC 2017) wasn't deleted???
Lightroom CC classic:
Updated automatically... previous version WAS DELETED... I was asked to upgrade the Library, which I did... seems to be a tad faster? Or just my imagination?
(All on a year old pretty descent PC running Windows 10...)

Kukkudrill,
I realize that my description wasn't complete. I've only send a few batches to news... didn't now they required lengthy descriptions. In the future if I send something to news I will.
But:
1) this thread is about difference between whats news and what is not?
2) if Alamy news decides that captions aren't sufficient shouldn't they ask for a correction?
3) and shouldn't they ask the contributor if they want to send it to stock QC?

The first SLR I used was my fathers Pentax ME with a 50mm lens.
The first SLR I bought was a Nikon F80, and still own it.
First DSLR: Nikon D70
Then I upgraded to a D700 and now a D750. Still use the D700 as a second body.
And I really want a D850 even though I don't need one...

Matt,
You're right on both points.
I hope in the future Alamy news will ask me to clarify my captions and in case they feel it's not news, will ask the contributor if they want to send the photos to QC...
As said, I treated the pictures as any other submission and they did pass QC...

I had the following mail communication with Alamy news team (I put the mails in order and removed names & emails, but the content is unchanged). Still not clear to me what the difference is:
From: news@alamy.com [mailto:news@alamy.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 30
To: Michael Jacobs
Subject: Alamy Live News: Stock Images to the News Feed
Hi Michael,
Thanks for the images you have uploaded to the News Feed.
However, we feel these are more suited to the general stock collection than news.
Please review our news guidelines regarding uploading to the news feed and our requirements for a news image. http://www.alamy.com/contributor/how-to-sell-news-images/best-place-to-sell-live-news-images/
We will remove these images and put them through the Quality Control queue. If you continue to upload stock images to the Live News feed, we will revoke your news privileges.
If you ever need a bit of photo inspiration you can check out our News lightbox bit.ly/1pveK8L.
You can also find us on twitter @alamynews we regularly tweet picture needs.
Kind regards,
Alamy News Team
From: Michael Jacobs
Date: Saturday, 30 September 2017
To: Alamy Live News <news@alamy.com>
Subject: RE: Alamy Live News: Stock Images to the News Feed
This is news? http://www.alamy.com/news/#BHM=foo%3Dbar%26qt%3D%26pn%3D1%26ps%3D120%26aoa%3D1%26news%3D%26sports%3D%26entmt%3D%26Videos%3D%26bb%3D1%26md%3DOL5836054%26dt%3D%26gid%3D{0FC50BAB-14EC-4C41-98B7-9407E72B84A3}%26destxml%3D%26imglst%3D%26orderby%3DDT%26newsseq%3D%26userid%3D%26rand%3D1506776197369
My pictures depict what is happening on the holiest day of the year, for Jews, in Tel Aviv. Isn't that news?
What, if I add "weather" In the description, it will become news?
You can send them to QC, I'm confident they will pass. I treated them like any other stock image.
From: news@alamy.com [mailto:news@alamy.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 30
To: Michael Jacobs
Subject: Alamy Live News: Stock Images to the News Feed
Hi Michael,
Weather is always in the news
It was not clear that these pictures showed the holiest day of the year in Tel Aviv, as the caption only stated the name of the building.
It’s your image so you know what it’s about, but a picture editor seeing it for the first time will be completely lost unless you help them out with accurate captions which answer the basic questions:
• What is happening in the picture?
• When did it take place?
• Where did it take place?
• Why did it take place?
• How did it come about?
The caption needs to be in this format: town/city, country, date (in format 01st April, 2015.), description, credit.
For example: Los Angeles, USA. 1st Apr, 2015. Elton John trips over as he walks along the red carpet at the 101st Grammy Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, USA. Credit: John Smith/Alamy Live News.
Kind reards,
…
Alamy News Team
From: Michael Jacobs
Date: Saturday, 30 September 2017
To: Alamy Live News <news@alamy.com>
Subject: RE: Alamy Live News: Stock Images to the News Feed
Hi Alamy News,
Thank you for your reply.
The phrase in your mail "If you continue to upload stock images to the Live News feed, we will revoke your news privileges." disturbed me a bit. I have *** on QC – more than 6000 photographs and the few Live news submissions also passed (except on one occasion, where I had to update the titles).
So I wouldn't like to have a bad record because of this submission. I do feel that my description was accurate: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. 30th september 2017. Yom kippur - Ayalon highway. Michael Jacobs/ Alamy live news. Yom kippur is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur
I do feel the photographs can be regarded as Live News, but if you feel otherwise it's your call ofcourse.
Kind greetings,
Michael

Noticed this usage back in June: https://meduza.io/atlas/paris/place/biblioteka-mitterana, so not sure when they downloaded the picture. I notified the contributor team end of June...
Was invoiced today for the fantastic price of... 5,81 $, which leaves me, wawawiwa... 1,75 $.
And the usage is:
Country: LatviaUsage: EditorialMedia: Magazine - print, digital and electronicPrint run: up to 10,000Placement: InsideImage Size: 1/4 pageStart: 01 August 2017End: 01 August 2022Online magazine. Duration: 1 year.
???

Might not have enough "large size" images in my collection, most are 12mp, I do have some up to 36mp (if my memory serves me well). Second thing is the sale resolution is not always given in Alamy's report... But never sold images beyond 12mp, a very few...

Income in 6 months is higher than whole past year. So no complaints here. Also made some 2,3 and 5 sales to the same client which is also nice.
I believe this is the result of the high number of uploads the past year...
But, in the past 3 months views and zooms are descending, which is not a good sign for the future...
And this month is really lousy... With some 10 days to go, hope will continue my nice average...

I also noticed, lately, that many sales are not a result of a zoom... Might be that the buyer zoomed previously or a distributor sale... or simply that the buyer could chose a photograph from a thumbnail? Who knows?
I have been trying to figuring the whole process: ratio of views / zooms / sales etc... by checking daily number of views / zooms / sales and inputting everything in an Excel sheet... comparing nr of zooms in the past 3 months vs sales...
Unfortunatly, I didn't find the formula yet...
Anyway, I should spend more time shooting and improving my photography than making Excel sheets...